125 Catholic Leaders Sign Letter Supporting Clean Power Plan

One hundred and twenty-five U.S. Catholic leaders have signed a letter organized by the Catholic Climate Covenant in support of the Clean Power Plan (CPP). The CPP is a significant U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) effort to reduce carbon pollution from existing power plants 30 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. The Clean Power Plan is the nation’s most ambitious effort to reduce climate-changing greenhouse gas pollution but faces an uncertain future in the Trump administration. The letter has been delivered by the Catholic Climate Covenant to the new EPA administrator as well as President Trump, top Congressional leaders, and state governors.

The group of Catholic leaders – which includes college and university presidents, women and men religious, theologians, and Catholic non-profit directors – stresses that Church teaching on the care of creation is deeply connected to the protection of human life and dignity, especially of the poor and vulnerable. The leaders also highlight Pope Francis’s emphasis on the “urgent need to develop policies so that, in the next few years, the emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases can be drastically reduced, for example, substituting fossil fuels and developing sources of renewable energy” (Laudato Si’ 26).

In response to the call of His Holiness, the leaders join with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other faith leaders who have called for a national carbon pollution standard like the Clean Power Plan. In particular, the leaders believe that the Clean Power Plan “will protect public health, promote equality, address climate change, and help create new economic opportunities in communities across the country.”

Nearly two-dozen states, including Oklahoma where nominated EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was attorney general, filed suit against the EPA to stop the CPP. That suit currently awaits a ruling by the DC Federal Circuit Court. The Catholic leaders continue that “if the Courts do not uphold the Clean Power Plan, then we call upon Congress to replace the CPP with new policies that will achieve the same or more ambitious carbon reduction goals. In that case, we also urge elected officials in each state to meet and exceed the carbon reduction goals identified for their state in the Clean Power Plan.” However they continue that “no matter the legal fate of the CPP, we believe that Congress will need to take additional steps in the years ahead to reduce domestic carbon pollution even more.” In conjunction with such legislative action, the leaders also advocate for accompanying transition programs (e.g., job training) that assist local communities which rely heavily upon some aspect of the fossil fuel industry.”

Following delivery of the letter, Catholic Climate Covenant Executive Director, Dan Misleh, said, “Saint John Paul II, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis all explicitly recognized human-forced climate change as a moral issue and called on people of faith and goodwill to take action. The U.S. Catholic bishops recognize a national carbon pollution standard like the Clean Power Plan as one such important action, and this letter demonstrates the commitment of the U.S. Catholic community to prophetically advocate for policies that care for our common home.”

Clean Power Plan Support LetterBy Leaders of the U.S. Catholic Community

To the President of the United States,
the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency,
the Democratic and Republican leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives,
and the 50 Governors of the United States,

As Catholic individuals and representatives of Catholic institutions, we call upon our state and federal elected officials to address the emerging climate crisis and lead the transition to renewable energy by taking legislative and executive action to meet and exceed the carbon reduction goals as laid out in the Clean Power Plan.

In Laudato Si’ (LS), his groundbreaking encyclical on ecology, Pope Francis echoes Saint John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI by calling climate change an urgent moral issue that wounds creation, threatens human life and dignity, and disproportionately harms the poor and vulnerable who contribute the least to climate change.[1] Pope Francis writes, “Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day” (LS 25).

In keeping with traditional Catholic teaching, Pope Francis says that we must all care for creation and the poor. Individuals, families, communities, governments, business and other institutions – including religions – all have a role to play in safeguarding our common home. In particular, the pope observes that “technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels – especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas – needs to be progressively replaced without delay” (LS 165). Additionally, the Holy Father underscores the “urgent need to develop policies so that, in the next few years, the emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases can be drastically reduced, for example, substituting fossil fuels and developing sources of renewable energy” (LS 26).

One such policy in the United States is the Clean Power Plan (CPP). It is the most significant step that the U.S. has ever taken to address climate change. By 2030, the CPP is projected to reduce carbon pollution from existing power plants by nearly 30 percent relative to 2005 levels. The Plan would also reduce other dangerous power plant pollution like sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide. These reductions are expected to prevent up to 3,600 premature deaths, 90,000 asthma attacks in children, and 300,000 missed work and school days.[2] They are also anticipated to produce up to $54 billion in public health and climate benefits – benefits that would be lost if the Clean Power Plan is not upheld and implemented.[3]

A national standard for reducing emissions in the electricity sector also goes a long way towards promoting human equality and environmental justice. African American children in the United States are four times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma and 7 times more likely than white children to die from asthma.[4] Nearly 40 percent of Latinos and 68 percent of African Americans in the United States live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant, and the health of these persons and communities at a greater risk because of their increased proximity to these plants. Reducing or eliminating emissions will thus go a long way towards reducing this risk.[5]

We therefore join with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and other faith leaders who have called for a national carbon pollution standard like the Clean Power Plan.[6] We agree with them that the CPP is, as the U.S. Catholic bishops say, “an important step forward to protect the health of all people, especially children, the elderly, and poor and vulnerable communities, from harmful pollution and the impacts of climate change.” We believe that greenhouse gas pollution reduction efforts like the CPP will protect public health, promote equality, address climate change, and help create new economic opportunities in communities across the country – including an expected national net gain of thousands of new jobs.[7] We also believe that the CPP provides the flexibility needed for states to meet reduction goals and recognize the widespread public support for the CPP and other efforts to reduce the greenhouse gas pollution.[8]

If the Courts do not uphold the Clean Power Plan, then we call upon Congress to replace the CPP with new policies that will achieve the same or more ambitious carbon reduction goals. In that case, we also urge elected officials in each state to meet and exceed the carbon reduction goals identified for their state in the Clean Power Plan.

No matter the legal fate of the CPP, we believe that Congress will need to take additional steps in the years ahead to reduce domestic carbon pollution even more. As Congress looks to take legislative action like placing a price on carbon pollution, however, we advocate for accompanying transition programs (e.g., job training) that assist local communities which rely heavily upon some aspect of the fossil fuel industry.

In sum, we call upon our elected leaders to care for our common home by taking legislative and executive action to meet and exceed the carbon reduction goals as laid out in the Clean Power Plan. We urge our officials to exercise strong leadership and help transition the United States away from its reliance on fossil fuels towards a clean and renewable energy future characterized by justice and peace “with God, with our neighbour and with the earth itself” (LS 66).

Signed,

Laura Anderson
Director of Marketing
Franciscan Peace Center

Sister Joan Agro
Sisters of St Dominic
Blauvelt, NY

Sister Carol De Angelo, SC
Director of Office of Peace, Justice and Integrity of Creation
Sisters of Charity of New York